Tag: paid apps

An Italian website has published details about a relatively simple exploit that has been discovered on the iPad that will make it extremely easy for iPad users to access paid iPad applications for free. The exploit involves accessing the .plist file on the iPad and changing the status of a command from “purchasable” to “viewable“. The paid apps like the New Yorker are noted to change their ‘Buy‘ buttons to ‘Download‘ once this is done enabling easy access. This can be done by anyone with basic computer skills.

Not all paid apps can be accessed this way though. Only applications that make use of Adobe’s Digital Content Viewer – that includes the Wired and The New Yorker apps – are vulnerable to this hack. Adobe issued a statement last week soon after the hack was discovered noting that they are working on this issue,

“We have confirmed that it is possible for experienced users with detailed instructions to access some digital publications on the iPad that have not been purchased. We are working on a fix and expect to deliver a new version of our Digital Content Viewer to publishers on Friday, October 8”

Interestingly, the hack appears to be working still; a week after Adobe’s self-imposed deadlines. It is not clear what is taking Adobe such a long time for the fix though.

Canadian Android smartphone users have had a long wait to get access to the paid app section on the Android marketplace; nine months to be precise. Now there are indications that the standoff could soon come to an end.

The Montreal Gazette writes that an announcement regarding this shall probably be made next week. The publication quotes a Google Canada spokesperson as saying

“There are many factors that come into play to make sure the selling and purchasing processes run smoothly. It takes time to bring support to more countries, which is something we are working hard to do.”

While it is possible that the announcement is simply to elaborate on the reasons behind the inordinate delay, we hope it is going to be much more positive than that.